Hatching in the Dickey Chicks a hatching

[the1much]

WOOOOooooHOOooooooo ,, aint the first hatch in a new bator sooooooo coolies hehe

and i know you were doing it "his" way,, i was kinda thinking out loud, bout his thinking,,,, it'll be cool to see the difference if you do it different next hatch.

hurry up already............................................

 

[BamaChicken]

Here they are. I did a crazy thing and could kick myself. I have hatched long enough to know better. I had five eggs left with no pips yet. This day 22. I cracked it open to see why didn't hatch and it was a black coneheaded baby alive but not ready to get here yet. Still hadn't absorbed all the yolk. I am leaving the other four in there. I think i may need to up the temp a little.

 

[Buster]

Congrats on your hatch Julie! I should have some hatching today or tomorrow sometime.

 

[the1much]

wowz,,,, dem purty babies

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Very cute babies!

 

[Clay In Iowa]

Julie,

Great info. I think It will translate very easily to my Humidaire.



One question for you. DO you have multiple trays at different levels? I've been reading 99.9F in the top tray very consistently(if I don't open the bator it doesn't move at all) and 99.3F in the lower rack. I'm using 2 different digital thermometers and have switched them, same temps. Maybe that's why the last 5 are a bit slow... maybe????

I'm a little concerned. I was going to hatch in the bottom. It reads 98 all the time.

 

[miss_jayne]

Julie! they are adorable! oh my goodness!

 

[BamaChicken]

I did put a thermometer in the bottom to check the temp and it was reading between 99 and 100. I am such a novice at this new cabinet bator i can't tell you anything with reliablility at this point. I am just saying I need to up mine a bit cause a friend of mine who has been hatching in one for years says it would be better to hatch a day or two early than late because you tend to get more curled toes with a late hatch. So see this is not from my own experience yet.
One thing I did learn is if the humidity is not going up with the pan of water on top with the floater I can just wet a paper towell and lay on top of the floater and it brought it right up. A friend told me that. She said having something wet above the walls of the pan would do it and it did.

 

[peepsnbunnies]

Hi Julie,
I have had the same problem with humidity before. I found that if I took a clean sponge, dampened it and stood it upright in the water pan, it kept the humidity up really well. I did not have to keep re-wetting the sponge as it was drawing the water from the pan and staying wet.

Lisa

 

[the1much]

measure your humidity tray,, the sportsman has "wicks" that go into the tray,, with no wicks mine stays at 45% and with 1 wick 55% and 2 wicks over 65%